(Nassau, The Bahamas) We would like to advise the public that the passport office continues to experience challenges with the production of passports.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs spoke in the House at the time of the budget debate and indicated that the wait for passports is twelve weeks from the date of the application.
There continues however to be challenges meeting even that deadline and the deadlines of those who already have dates given to them.
The Ministry is working on addressing the issues.
Additional staff and equipment are being brought in and utilized to deal with the challenges with a view to removing a backlog of some 6500 passport applications.
The public is advised that those who need to have passports within 48 hours of the application after the 1st of July can with the payment of a fee of 200 dollars obtain the passport on an emergency basis.
Those who have applied before 1st July and were given a date certain for the production of the passport, will not have to pay any additional fee for the production of the passport if needed at short notice. The office will do its best to accommodate all of these requests in order to facilitate medical emergencies, athletes representing the country or students returning to schools overseas.
The additional fee applies only to applications brought in after the 1st of July who wish the passport produced within 48 hours.
In order to facilitate emergency passport production requests, the Passport Office will make available to the general public in the coming week, a dedicate email address through which such requests can be made. This dedicated system will greatly assist the Passport Office in better serving the public.
In addition, there is also a 200 dollar charge in addition to the cost the passport for anyone who has lost two passports or more within a 12 month period.
The fee is not payable where there is a medical emergency. We thank the public for their understanding in this matter.
